Lily Aldrin
(Age 11) |aka = Lilypad, Justice Aldrin, Red, Lil, Chewbacca, The Belly, The Slap Bet Commissioner, Lori, The Kraken, Red Head, Ms. Aldrin, Lily Stinson, Mrs. Awesome, Number One Gunna |birthday = March 22, 1978 |died = |residence = Lily's First Apartment The Apartment (season 1) Lily's Second Apartment (season 2) Barney's apartment (season 2) The Apartment (season 2 - 3) Marshall and Lily's house (season 7) The Apartment (Season 7 - present) |hometown = Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, |job = Art consultant (Season 8 - present) Kindergarten teacher (pre-Season 1 - Season 1, Season 2 - Season 8) Waitress at Big Wave Luau (Season 2) Office assistent Ted's Architecture firm (Season 2) |romances = Scooter (ex-boyfriend, admirer) Marshall Eriksen (husband) }}Lily Aldrin (born March 22, 1978) is one of five main characters of How I Met Your Mother, portrayed by Alyson Hannigan. She is the wife of Marshall Eriksen and the best friend of Robin Scherbatsky, as well as one of Ted Mosby's closest friends, having known him and Marshall since college. She currently works as an art consultant to The Captain, having formerly been a kindergarten teacher. She is also an amateur painter. She is virtually incapable of keeping secrets, with a few exceptions. In , Lily is found to be pregnant, and in she gives birth to a boy named Marvin. During Barney and Robin's wedding weekend it is revealed that Lily became pregnant again. In February 2014 she gives birth to their daughter Daisy Eriksen, where it is also shown that Lily and Marshall spend the year in Rome. In the finale "Last Forever", in a flashforward to 2016, Lily announces that she is pregnant with their third kid. Character Background Childhood Lily was born on March 22, 1978. She grew up in New York City, in the borough of Brooklyn. In her early life, her father took care of her most of the time. Lily's mother is an extreme feminist, who worked two jobs and refused to buy her an easy bake oven. After entering school, her dad became a stay-at-home dad who was distracted by his newfound dream of creating the next great American board game, therefore constantly neglecting Lily. After a while, she even gave him the You're dead to me look. Young Lily also took ballet and gymnastics ( ). It's also known that Lily owned a dog named Bean. Teenage Years In high school, Lily had a goth-like appearance. In the ninth grade, she accidentally passed gas loudly while in class. She blamed Michael Sasser, the boy seated next to her who was just getting close to becoming one of the cool kids after joining the baseball team. After she blamed him, Michael gained the nickname, "Gasser", and was teased so much that he switched schools. Lily would later consider this to be one of her biggest regrets ( ). She became a teenage bad-ass, who terrorised her neighborhood, would drink under-age, and bullied Scooter into starting a relationship ( ). She was eventually in a committed relationship with Scooter. She technically may have lost her virginity to him, but as Robin puts it "he didn't dive in, but he got in the shallow end". Since the two of them had different plans after high school, she broke up with Scooter at their senior prom. College Lily attended Wesleyan University, where she majored in art. During a freshman floor party, she made out with a guy named Colin. She got so drunk that she completely forgot who she hooked up with and referred to Colin as "too much tongue guy". After seeing Marshall Eriksen at orientation, she broke her stereo and went to see if she could find him to fix it. She would later go on to meet Ted Mosby. After Marshall helped her fix her stereo in her dorm room, the two of them started dating. When Lily first turned on the stereo, Good Feeling by was playing. The two of them went on to fall in love and lose their virginity to each other, and Good Feeling became 'their song'. She and Marshall also spent their first Valentine's Day together watching the movie, , which became their Valentine's Day tradition. Lily also developed a loathing hatred for Ted's on-again, off-again girlfriend, Karen. She and Marshall hated Karen because she was constantly cheating on Ted and when she acted sophisticated, she came off as obnoxious. But the biggest reason she hated Karen was because she walked in on her painting a nude portrait of Marshall and Karen lingered and stared at Marshall's penis. Sometime during her college career, Lily did a study abroad program in Paris for a semester. General Background She is married to Marshall Eriksen and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Lily also has dreams of being an artist. She also has a huge debt problem because of her impulsive buying practices. She is able to hide this from Marshall until they apply for a mortgage. She cannot keep a secret, and is a very caring person and will much of the time do thankless acts for the good of her friends. She is also known to have to pee often, as shown during the episode . She met Marshall and Ted in college and almost immediately started dating Marshall. They were together for about nine years and engaged for almost a year when Lily broke up with Marshall to move to San Fransisco to concentrate on her art. She was there for a summer and came back to NYC but Marshall was too hurt that they stayed separated for another couple months afterward. They eventually patched things up and got married. They moved into an apartment in which they do not know at first stands for Down Wind of the Sewage Treatment Plant. They want children, but for awhile are scared so they did not try. Later Lily and Marshall make a bet that once they have seen the doppelganger of every member of their gang they will start trying for a child. By the summer of 2010 they have seen all but Barney's doppelganger when Lily sees what she thinks his doppelganger (it was not). The rest of the gang knew this meant she was ready for a child and let her believe it. She doesn't like the word "moist", and is lactose intolerant. She has a very bad aim. Personality Despite her small, cute-like appearance, Lily is far from innocent. She is known to be an extremely sexual person. Throughout the series, Lily and Marshall have been shown announcing to the rest of the gang how proud the two are of their sexual history, which usually ends with them giving each other high-fives. Lily also been shown to be curious about other people's romantic/sex lives, specifically Ted's and Barney's. With Barney, Lily has asked Robin about his sex preferences, specifically if he liked to use toys in the bed. With Ted, Lily has taken it upon herself to make him break up with women that she didn't approve of since their time in college together, especially if they didn't pass her "Front Porch Test", where she would imagine what the group would look like as elderly people sitting on the front porch of their shared beach house. This attitude makes Lily an outright hypocrite due to Robin having originally not passed the test, which would have meant Lily sabotaging Ted and Robin's relationship and causing more trouble than was worth. Lily defends these obviously immoral actions by stating it's for Ted's own good, showing that Lily has problems recognizing boundaries and does not realize how awful some of her choices can be for anyone else. She could also be labeled as extremely manipulative in that over the course of the series, if she does not approve of something, she will go out of her way to change it, even if it's nothing to do with her, as she has demonstrated by locking Robin and Barney in the room together in , where she forced them to have "the talk" whereupon if they didn't, they weren't allowed to come out of the room. Lily's manipulative nature can come across as also being remarkably hypocritical as she tries to make everyone around her into exactly what she wants them to be without regard as to how she could change to better suit the needs of others. She ignores anyone else's feelings in most matters that concern others and follows the logic that just because she wants them to, the people around her will forgive her. A notable example of this is in the episode Milk when she abandons Ted by the side of the road after he fixed her tire, stating that "he was her best friend and just had to forgive her." Her 'Aldrin Justice' system has often proven to be a controlling and aggressive act in itself, for example when she attempted to blackmail Hammond Druthers into being a nicer boss by stealing his baseball, and when he threatened to fire three people an hour until she returned his ball, she completely disregarded that this would lead to Ted being fired and insisted that her methods were warranted. Her hypocritical selfishness can also be noted in other ways such as in the episode Murtaugh when she was appalled by Marshall's over-excessive teaching of her kindergarten basketball team, saying he was being too harsh. Then, as a response, she resorts to treating Marshall harshly to get him to be nicer, acting exactly like she penalized Marshall for acting to get him to do what she wanted. Another instance of her hypocrisy is shown in the episode Last Cigarette Ever where she criticized Marshall's smoking habits, making him give up his pack of cigarettes only to start smoking them herself right in front of him. Another example would be in the episode The Exploding Meatball Sub when she pretends to be supportive of Marshal's obviously illogical decisions then tricks Ted into driving her to the airport so she can take a flight to Spain, a holiday Marshal had ruined after taking an unpaid job which Lily claimed to be giving her full support on. Being a kindergarten teacher, Lily has a warped sense of justice. She has a tendency to punish people that she doesn't approve in a similar fashion to how she would punish the children in her class even though they're fully grown adults. Lily is even willing to perform "punishments" that break the law, she stole a pair of pants because the store's sales clerk was rude to Robin. One of Lily's most notable traits that the entire gang has noticed is that she loves gossip and is almost incapable of keeping a secret. She has shown to reveal secrets within minutes after promising to keep them secret as shown when she told Ted Robin's opinion of him after their first date. The longest secret that she ever kept was her shopping addiction, which was eventually revealed to the rest of the gang in Season 3. Lily has the tendency to turn to shopping whenever she is upset whether the problem has to do with her relationships or even receiving a high credit card bill. Ted also has noticed that when she is upset or feeling guilty she will peel the labels off water bottles. She also has the bad habit of chewing too loudly as shown in . Lily also has the capacity of acting incredibly selfish on several occasions without thought of the opinions or feelings of others. The biggest example of these is when she left Marshall to move to San Francisco, jeopardizing their engagement, wedding and causing Marshall to fall into a financial and emotional pit, all of these consequences caused purely because Lily wanted to see if she could make it as an artist. Another notable example is in the episode Unpause when she calls out Marshall's acceptance of a judgeship over going with her to Italy as being more selfish than anything she has ever done, completely disregarding anything she has done in the past including her break-up with him. Her self-centered idea of how everyone should act according to her and the lengths she is prepared to go to achieve those ends can be easily translated as being selfish and ignorant of the thoughts or desires of others and how they may want to live their own lives, instead invading their lives so as to better suit her yet stating it is all in their best interests when it's really in her own. Despite of all the selfish and manipulative behaviour,Lily is a really very emotional person and loves the group no matter what. She is the string that has kept the whole group intact. Her emotional behaviour, innovative and cute little punishments, love for the group as a mother makes her a very nice character and a friend who everyone should have in their life. Career From the beginning of the series, Lily had been a kindergarten teacher. After coming back from San Francisco, she tried finding a job she was passionate about (life coach, a marine biologist, slam poet, beekeeper) while being a waitress at a Hawaiian restaurant named "Big Wave Luau". She later quits her job as a waitress and Ted offers her a job as an office assistant in his architecture firm. However, when Lily takes Ted's boss's signed baseball for being mean and refused to give it back, Ted fired her. He offered Lily her job back when he became the project manager, but Lily realizes that her real passion is being a kindergarten teacher. In 2013, Lily confides in Ted, and later Marshall, that she regrets not following a career in art and now it's too late for that. However, she soon gets an offer from The Captain to be his art consultant, which she gladly accepts. A few months later, The Captain tells her that he is moving to Rome for a year and would like her to accompany him as his art consultant. She is reluctant at first and says no to him twice, but later accepts his offer after Marshall convinces her. This offer was in jeopardy at some episodes in season 9 due to conflicts with her husband's judge offer ship. This has been solved during ''Daisy'' when Marshall tells her she is giving him his dream by being pregnant again. Relationships Romantic Interests Marshall Eriksen Marshall and Lily have been a couple since their freshmen year of college. They lost their virginity to each other in college (they originally were going to wait until new years day) while Ted was on the top bunk of the bed. After being together nine years they were engaged. Lily broke off their engagement to go to an art fellowship in San Francisco. Barney then went to her and told her about how terrible Marshall was and told her to come back for him. When she returned and asked Marshall for his forgiveness in season two, he rejected her at first. There was a brief period of time where they couldn't be around each other. When Lily interrupted Marshal's date, they got back together. They then continued their engagement, and pledged to sleep separately for the remainder of their engagement. They couldn't even do that, because of how much they loved each other. Marshal and Lily later got married. Four years later, they decided to try to have a baby, but realized it required too much responsibility and postponed it. In the season 6 finale, they find out that Lily is pregnant, and their son Marvin is born in The Magician's Code Part - One. Scooter Scooter (also known as Bill) and Lily were a couple in high school. She broke up with him during their senior prom, and broke his heart. Scooter is apparently still in love with Lily even though she is married to Marshall, and has him on "the hook" going so far as to work in the canteen at her work. Scooter was also present at their wedding trying to win Lily back, but was escorted out by Brad. Friendships Ted Mosby Ted and Lily have been friends since their freshmen year of college. Ted first heard of Lily when Marshall told him how they met, and she met Ted in person when he was on the phone with Karen, begging her to take him back. The three of them became closer when Ted invited Lily into his roommate photo with Marshall. Robin Scherbatsky Lily and Robin are best friends. Their relationship as best friends started when Robin just met Lily and wanted to have Thai food in the flashback confession in . They spilled the food in the car and Lily worried that Marshall would be mad at them. They decided to lie and say that a drunk man broke the window and puked inside the car. Since then, they've been best friends. Barney Stinson In Season 2, when Lily couldn't stand to stay in her new apartment anymore, she begged Barney to let her stay at his apartment, which would be the very first time Barney's apartment is shown in the show. Barney starts using Lily, pretending to be his wife, to scare off his one-night-stands - and they start getting closer. They now have a kind of brother-sister relationship. Barney confesses to Lily about his interest in Robin and other information, like Lily knows that Barney wanted to become a violinist when he was young. Lily is however mostly not good at keeping Barney's secrets. Family Notes and Trivia *Lily is a female name of English origin and literally means "lily". This flower is a symbol of innocence; purity and beauty. *Lily was not seen in season four episodes (except for a brief moment in the beginning), , and (until the tag scene) due to Alyson Hannigan's pregnancy. This makes her the only one of the five main characters who has not been in all of the episodes. **This was passed off in the series as Barney telling her a dirty joke, and Lily deciding she needed a break from it all. *In Barney's blog (The Slap Stops Here!), Barney states that Lily's full name is Lilith. However, he also says her last name is Eriksen (nee Aldrin). Between the fact that Lily's last name is Aldrin and the fact that Barney has been known to improvise his friends' full names when he doesn't know them ( ), it's unclear if Lily actually is short for Lilith. The name Lillith is derived from the Akkadian lilitu and means "of the night". This was literally the name of a demon in ancient Assyrian myths (the complete opposite of a flower of purity and beauty). *Lily's résumé says that she speaks Italian fluently.Her résumé is seen for a brief moment in . However, in , she is shown speaking Italian poorly by saying "I am goodbye to a job in Italian. Many sad." in Italian after claiming it was getting better. *She claims to speak Conductor in but whenever the conductor makes an announcement, the train seems to do the opposite. *In , it is shown that whenever Lily feels guilty, she peels the label of bottles, similar to how Ted peels off the label of beer bottles whenever he is nervous. *Lily has bisexual tendencies. She repeatedly hints at wanting to have a lesbian experience, and tells Robin that she had a great ass and admits to having romantic dreams about her. It stated that whenever she drink martinis she wants to make out with Robin and she has dreams about her when she's pregnant. ( ) *Lily is the second well-known character of HIMYM (the first is Barney Stinson) as Hannigan received some awards and nominations for her appearance as Lily. *In it was revealed that Lily chews very loudly, even when she is eating cotton candy. *While Alyson Hannigan was starring in , her character stated that she once wrote Doogie Howser, M.D. fan fiction. Doogie Howser was portrayed by Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson's now costar. *When the character Lily was pregnant on the show, the actress who plays Lily (Alyson Hannigan) was pregnant in real life. *In both of Alyson Hannigan's most well known television roles, her characters have been named after plants. Willow (after the tree) on , and obviously Lily (the flower) on How I Met Your Mother. *Eleven years old was portrayed by in . *Lily is loosely based on Rebecca Alson-Milkman, wife of series writer Craig Thomas who Marshall is based on. Rebecca agreed to have the character based on her if Hannigan played the role. *It is implied that while living in San Francisco Lily derived sexual pleasure from the vibrations caused by an earthquake, sighing contentedly at the memory. Technically this makes the city her only sexual partner other than Marshall and Scooter. *She is the only member of the gang who has no siblings. *Her surname "Aldrin" is of Swedish origin. References External Links * * de:Lily Aldrin es:Lily Aldrin it:Lily Aldrin pt:Lily Aldrin uk:Лілі Олдрін Category:The gang Category:Characters Category:Wesleyan University Category:Females Category:The gang's families Category:Smokers Category:Season 8 characters Category:LGBT Category:Aldrin Family Category:Eriksen Family Category:Recurring characters